Archive for ‘Health Professions’

Some people pursue a career in medicine because they’re interested in helping others. Some choose the medical field with an eye to profit. Some are simply fascinated with the intricate workings of the human body.

And then there are a handful who have experienced a life-threatening illness and recovered – and they want to give back.

Growing up with an autistic sister fostered in Jade Jung (’11) an interest in research. And growing up with a father and grandfather who are both physicians created in her a desire to enter the medical field.

Jade, a senior chemistry major, hopes to focus on both as she enters medical school in the fall to become a medical researcher.

When Ashley Del Real thinks of poverty, she thinks of a 2-year-old boy who weighs only 15 pounds, forced to sleep on the ground where bugs bite him nightly. She thinks of a disfigured, malnourished woman living in a tiny house with a leaky roof while her life is being stripped away by cancer.

The images she bears are the result of spending five weeks with Mission Lazarus in Honduras. Her connections with World Wide Witness through ACU opened doors to a different world that holds possibilities for her future.

Senior biology major Abby Trejo made that discovery during summer internships in Ghana and Guatemala, where she worked at an orphanage and helped with mobile medical clinics taking health care to villagers in remote locations.

This pre-med student used these experiences as part of her capstone project for the Honors College, comparing the diseases she encountered in those developing countries with illnesses she sees working at an Abilene hospital.

David Kempe knew he wanted to do something related to biochemistry since he was a kid. He always thought he wanted to be a doctor like his father, a cardiovascular surgeon. As he grew older and began to have more opportunities to explore science, his fascination with chemistry deepened.

“It was something that I always loved,” he said.

In high school, his favorite classes included AP Chemistry, infectious diseases and genetics. David also discovered he was a math person who liked things to be “nice and concrete.” He found that chemistry made him think about science in entirely new ways.

When Morgan Negaard thinks of what she misses most about living in Montevideo, Uruguay, two things come immediately to mind: friends and a sense of peace.

Morgan and a few of the other ACU students on the trip made friends with the youth group from the church next door to the ACU house. They would go out and drink maté, a traditional Uruguayan hot tea, talk about anything and everything, and practice using conversational Spanish.

“It was really awesome getting to build intercultural relationships,” she said. She also came to appreciate the humility and caring and connections she found in the church next door.

Someday Brittany Armenta wants to work with kids who have cancer. As a pediatric oncologist, she’ll walk into a hospital or a clinic every day and face children whose lives have been turned upside down by a disease they don’t fully understand. She’ll deal with the pain of parents and relatives who can’t fathom why their child is so terribly sick. She’ll grieve for the patients she loses and rejoice with the ones who recover. But through it all, she will be heeding a summons she heard years ago.